Trump posted the AI Jesus image on his Truth Social platform Sunday, which just happened to be Orthodox Easter. The post also came at a time when the president is feuding with Pope Leo XIV over the war in Iran.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, defended Trump’s post Monday on Fox News, saying he thought the president meant the post as a joke and took it down “because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.”
On Tuesday, Johnson offered his own form of damage control fealty when CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi asked him if he thought the Jesus post was “blasphemy.”
“I talked with the president about it as soon as I saw it,” Johnson said. “And I told him I don’t think it was being received in the same way he intended it. He agreed, and he pulled it down. That was the right thing to do.
“He explained how he saw that, and I don’t think he thought it was sacrilegious at all.”
Johnson said the president “showed great respect to others by removing it.”
